ICAST 107 Days Away

Now is the time to make your reservation to attend ICAST, the world's largest sport fishing trade show, at the Orlando, Orange County Convention Center on I-Drive.

ICAST is a closed show.  It is not open to the general public.

Each year over 13,000 sport fishing buyers, store owner,  media and sport fishing celebrities gather for the three-day sport fishing experience.

 This year the water products on-water demo will take place at the Orange County Convention Center instead of using Lake Toho.  The demonstration will be held at the rear of the North/South Concourse.  Shuttles will be available to transport attendees from the West Concourse to the demonstration area. Also, the ICAST Cup will still be held on Lake Toho.

As we get closer to July and the opening of ICAST, I will post updates. So come back soon.  Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

Ron Jon Beach 'N Board Fest 2017

February and March are always great times to hit the Space Coast beaches to enjoy some of Florida's best surf and SUP events. This past March 10-12, 2017, the Ron Jon Beach N Board Fest was held at Shepard park in Cocoa Beach.  The Fest was a great family affair.  There was surfing, high school girls volleyball, skateboarding, wake boarding, music, food and product displays.  Something for everyone.  Click HERE for a video from the Ron Jon Beach N Board Fest.  Here are few great photos from the Ron Jon Beach N Board Fest.  Click HERE to visit the Board Fest webpage.  Hope to see you there next year.  Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day n the great outdoors.

The Normal Brand at Surf Expo

Each year as I cruise the rows at Surf Expo, I am on the hunt for a brand that puts a different spin on its products as the brand tries to get the attention of surf lifestyle buyers and store owners.  In January I discovered 'The Normal Brand".

The Normal Brand? That seems like a very  nebulous name for an upscale mens' and women's clothing line.  That is why I had to find out what The Normal Brand was all about.

To start with, this clothing company is a family affair.  At the show were three brothers, one of which started the brand.  Jimmy Sansone was the brainstorm behind The Normal Brand.  If you search for Jimmy Sansone you can easily find him. But click HERE for a very good article from Entrepreneur Magazine about The Normal Brand.

The Normal Brand booth was tucked away on one of the rows in the clothing area of Surf Expo.  When I arrived three of the brothers were sitting on the booths front steps.  There I met Lan Sansone pictured above.  He gave me the history of the family business started by his brother Jimmy.  We talked about how their Midwest lifestyle had a big impact on their clothing design.  As Entrepreneur Magazine article noted, the Normal Brand was filling a gap between office attire and outdoor clothing where office attire was not suited for the outdoors and outdoor clothing was not suited for the office. Through Jimmy Sansone's ingenuity and vision, The Normal Brand was born. Lan showed me the great book they had made when he and Jimmy went fly fishing in Oregon with their father.  He was real proud of the family's accomplishment taking The Normal Brand where it is today.

You can shop online by clicking HERE for their storefront.  You can also find The Normal Brand at retailers like Urban Outfitters. Click HERE to find a store near you.  Find a store near you and try on their great outdoor clothes for men and women.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

Kayak Fishing Sarasota, Florida

The fishing community here in Florida is a diverse collection of pond, lake, inshore and offshore fisheries.  Anglers from all across the world work travel to the Sunshine State to test their angling skills.  Whether or not you fish from the shore, pier, boat, kayak or SUP, you can find your little piece of fishing heaven here in Florida.

If you are looking to hone your kayak fishing skills, there is a kayak fishing guide out of Sarasota who has a reputation of putting his clients on many different species of fish.  His specialty is fly fishing from a kayak.  Steve Gibson has been guiding kayak anglers along the west coast of Florida for as long as I can remember.  Click HERE for Steve's biography.  

Steve offers his clients trips to Sarasota and Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Matlacha and Pine Island Sound and the Everglades.  His trip prices vary from $200 for a half day up to $350 for a trip to the Everglades.  

When fishing with Steve, you will get a chance to try out the NuCanoe fishing kayak. NuCanoe has designed their Frontier Fishing Kayak especially for fly anglers with its stable wide deck. Click HERE for the NuCanoe webpage.  In addition to fishing from a NuCanoe Frontier, the Pursuit maximizes kayak speed and agility with its sleek design.  Both of these fishing kayak are stable enough to stand up and fish.  This is why these kayaks are loved by fly anglers.  The stand up and fish accessory package is available on both the Frontier and Pursuit fishing kayaks.  No matter what kind of kayak you have at home, fishing from a NuCanoe just might be a new experience. 

As spring and summer approach and you are planning your Florida vacation, making Sarasota your base camp would not be a bad idea.  Sarasota is just two hours from Orlando with Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World and a short one hour drive to Bush Gardens in Tampa.

To learn more about vacationing in Sarasota click HERE for the Visit Sarasota web page.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors. 

Stainless Steel Thermal Bottles & Glasses By MIzu Life

This year, in advance of the January Surf Expo, I started planning how I would schedule my time to see many of the exciting exhibiting brands that come to Surf Expo each January and September at the Orlando Orange County Convention Center.  My first booths to visit were those who contacted me in advance of the show.  One of those brands was Pukka.  These guys are best custom hat company at the show.  Check out my Pukka article coming soon. When Ryan O'Leary contacted me about stopping by, I noticed that his PR company also represented Mizu Life.

Mizu Life is a purveyor of stainless steel thermal bottles and glasses.

Because I have done past articles on many of the stainless steel thermal bottles and glasses, like Orca, Yeti, and Engel and after visting the Mizu Life webpage, I wanted to do this because; 1)  Mizu Life was not coming to Surf Expo and 2) their product line competed head to head with Yeti and Orca and all the other brands that have focused on the stainless steel thermal product market.  I reached out to Ryan about doing a Mizu product review.  This past week I received a assortment of Mizu Life product samples delivered by UPS.  In the box were a thermal coffee cup, a V10 thermal 1000 ml bottle and a set of wine glasses.  At first look, after a close inspection, the quality, fit and trim were very good - equal to Yeti, Orca and Engel.  That is important because the Mizu Life MSRP price points are in the same price range as Yeti, Orca and Engel products.

Here is my "First Look" review of the the Mizu Life stainless steel thermal bottle, coffee cup and wine glasses.  The V10 thermal insulated stainless steel bottle which holds 1000 ml is a member of the V-Series of small medium and large thermal insulated stainless steel bottles.  The V6 small bottle holds 19 oz / 560 ml, the V8 medium bottle holds 26 oz / 760 ml and the V10 large bottle holds 34 oz / 1000 ml.  The V8 is the perfect size for that 750 ml bottle of wine. What is missing from their lineup is a 64 oz beer growler.  They really need that to round out their V-Series thermal insulated stainless steel bottle products.

The V-Series bottles are perfect for taking chilled or  hot beverage on an outdoor trip.  Where the V10 comes with a handle that makes carrying the bottle easier the V6 and V8 do not.  As an accessory you can get looped V6 and V8 cap for each bottle that allows you to clip the bottle to your backpack.

 Mizu Life rates their V-Series bottles at 12 hours for hot beverages and 24 hours for cold beverages.

 I have been using thermal insulated stainless steel tumblers and bottles for about two years now.  For me, buy the time I have reached 4 hours, what ever beverage I may be carrying will be gone.  So the Mizu Life heat and cold rating will be perfect for my outdoor activities.

My wife Kathi and I take long car trips from time to time traveling from Florida to Fall Church, VA where my son and his wife live.  We always carry a special traveling box of kitchen gear.  In our box we have a set of plastic wine glasses because we have broken far to many glass wine glasses. Now we never have to worry about that again.  The set of two thermal insulated stainless steel wine glasses are going into our traveling kitchen gear box.  Mizu Life does make a thermal insulated stainless steel pint beer glass.  That would be perfect for me because I drink more beer on a trip than wine.  Wine is my wife's go to beverage.  We have a trip planned for March to Fall Church.  I will be able to give a full report on how the V10 and wine glasses perform.

In addition to their bottles and wine glasses, Mizu Life has a two thermal insulated stainless steel tumblers / cups the T20 and T30. Each comes with a plastic lid.  These are very similar in shape to the Yeti and Orca tumblers.  The T20 has a MSRP point of $29.95 and the T30 of $34.95. But today the T30 price has been reduced to $29.95 on their webpage.  Click HERE to see the price online.

The coffee cup is the perfect size  and shape to go into my backpack.  It is light enough to carry on weekend trips.  It will get a lot of mileage from this cup on future trips.

An interesting feature Mizu Life provides its customers is the ability to private label their thermal insulated stainless steel products. On their webpage you can see examples of the artwork that has been applied to their products for their  customers.  Click HERE to visit their custom bottle page.  They can put your logo on all their products.

All and all, I am really looking forward to running the Mizu Life wine glasses, V10 bottle and coffee cup through their paces.  So stay tuned for further updates.

Check out the full Mizu Life line up of their outdoor products by visiting their webpage.  Click HERE.

Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

New Ice Mule Beach Cooler Bag from Surf Expo

When I attend Surf Expo I like to visit old friends to see what new products they have coming out.  At the 2017 January Surf Expo, Jim Collie, Ice Mule President and CEO could be found in the booth showing the full lineup of Ice Mule products.  This year I got advanced notice of the new Ice Mule Beach bag.  Having seen the Beach Bag from the outside I could only imagine what the inside of the bag looked like.  Wow was I surprised when I actually got to see the bag.  Thinking that the entire bag as the cooler, boy was I wrong. What Jim Collie did was to design a smaller Ice Mule Cooler that would fit inside the middle of the bag between open spaces where beach towels and other gear could be stored.

Designing the bag like this made the bag multipurpose.  The bag could be used with or without the Ice Mule Cooler.  What a great idea.

Along with the Ice Mule Coolers, there were full lineup of coolers.  Coming out along with the Beach Bag, is the new sea-foam colored cooler.  You can see the new color in the photos to the left.  Jim said that the new sea foam color was a big hit at the show and he expected strong sales from the new color.

Also Ice Mule is offering their customers a new product display  stand.  It is the one pictured along side of Jim Collie shown below.  I have been  using mine for two years now and I love it.

I especially like that I can roll it up and put it in my luggage when traveling by air.  At my destination I will have my cooler with me.  That is real sweet because I cannot tell you how many times I have purchased a cheap Styrofoam ice chest to leave it behind in the hotel room when flying back home.  Ice Mule has solved that problem for me.

As you get ready for the 2017 spring and summer seasons and you are in the market for a new cooler, you need to check out all the different Ice Coolers because they work as they were designed to do. If you do not have a Ice Mule re-seller in your neighborhood, click HERE to visit their webpage.

 Until next time be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.

Body Glove Water Shoes & SUPs at Surf Expo

At the January Surf Expo held at the Orange County Convention Center  I had the chance to meet Matthew Ross the Director of Marketing for Footwear and ISUPs.  Matt gave me the run down on the Body Glove lineup of water shoes.

On display were the Body Glove 3T Barefoot Warrior and the Dynamo Rapid.  Both of these shows are moderately priced and can be purchased at your local surf shop or outdoor retailer.  You can buy these shoes now by visiting the Body Glove website.  Click HERE to see these shoes.  Also on display were the new Dynamo Swift. This new shoe has new added support that starts at the show quarter and crosses over the shoe vamp on both sides.

This gives the wearer support where the Dynamo Rapid does not. See photos below.  If you did not know the parts of a shoe, see the diagram below.   The Swift will be available in stores later in the year.

Body Glove had two SUPs on display in their booth.  The size and shape of these two SUPs were typical of SUPs being shown at this year's Surf Expo. What made them different was the fact that Body Glove has designed these boards so the fins cannot be removed.  The board fin design does not restrict the inflatable SUP from being deflated, rolled up and inserted in the carrying bag.  This is a great board feature because board surfers have at time lost their fins causing problems on the water.  Click HERE for the Body Glove SUPs

That can certainly ruin your day. If you have never been to Surf Expo I can tell you that Body Glove has one of the biggest display areas of any exhibitor. Their swim and wet suit exhibit areas dwarf most other brands exhibiting at the show.

One more thought from talking with Matthew Ross.  I asked him about their three toed barefoot shoes and the problems other barefoot shoe had in the past.  He told me that the Body Glove 3T Barefoot Warrior was a big seller because it was designed for water sports, not to wear while running where other brands ran into big trouble.

With the September Surf Expo only a short 7 months away, I cannot wait to see what Body Glove come up with for this show.  Until next time, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great outdoors.